Even many Democrats running against the war are not your typical
McGovernites. Tammy Duckworth's congressional campaign in Illinois is based
almost entirely on her service in the Iraq war (in which she lost both
legs). On virtually every other issue, however, she tries not to say
anything that sounds too liberal. In Virginia, Senate candidate James Webb -
who sounds like a Republican on affirmative action - is so atypical that his
opponent, GOP incumbent George Allen, is running as the more "pro-woman"
candidate, thanks to Webb's salty past comments on women in the military.
Similarly, Robert Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania, who's running for Senate
against incumbent Republican Rick Santorum, offers little more than
inarticulate fog on most issues, but his reputation (mostly inherited from
his former-governor father) as a social conservative and pro-lifer has him
in the lead. In North Carolina, former Washington Redskins quarterback Heath
Shuler is running as a Democrat and as an anti-abortion, pro-gun member of
the National Rifle Association.
Democrats stopped fighting for gun control years ago. In this election, it
appears the Dems no longer consider abortion a litmus test either. In
Colorado, gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter isn't quite pro-life, but he
refuses to say he's pro-choice. Missouri's state treasurer, Claire
McCaskill, raises money for her Senate bid against GOP incumbent Jim Talent
by touting her support for embryonic stem cell research in New York City,
but she mumbles about it when on the stump back home. And when asked about
partial-birth abortion on a recent "Meet the Press" debate, McCaskill
flip-flopped and came out against the procedure.
Defenders of the Democrats, such as the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne, argue
that this is all proof that the Democrats have a big tent and are a centrist
party. Of course, liberals immediately abandon this logic when discussing
Republican moderates; they insist that a vote for a moderate simply empowers
the radicals in the GOP. Well, that's the Republicans' point. The only way
for them to fend off the Democratic tsunami is to persuade their base that a
Democratic victory would give Pelosi and her allies free rein to raise taxes
on everyone but married gay couples, antiwar protesters and illegal
immigrants. And, jokes aside, the Republicans have a point.
Also, the idea that the Democratic Party is a big-tent party is belied by
the fact that swing voters aren't voting for the Democrats, they're voting
against the Republicans. A Washington Post-ABC News poll found that only 22
percent of independents planning to vote Democratic are "very enthusiastic"
about that choice.
There's a silver lining here for conservatives - though you can be sure it
will go unnoticed amid the din of champagne corks popping at the editorial
offices of the New York Times and the clatter of Katie Couric dancing a jig
on the evening news. A Democratic victory would be a victory for liberals,
but it wouldn't represent a mandate for liberalism. That's a lesson a
Speaker Pelosi may learn soon enough.